North Plains artist's sculptures add whimsy across Washington County

View full sizeJames Schmidt stands with his sculpture "Table and Chairs 2," one of several art works that occupy the landscape around his home in rural North Plains.
Michal Thompson / The Argus

Anyone traveling through Washington County may have come across the work of artist James Schmidt — or even sat in it.

Schmidt, a 62-year-old North Plains sculptor who has pieces of public art on display across the county, recently added Beaverton's Lombard Plaza to the list.

Part of Beaverton's public art program, Schmidt's stainless steel sculpture "Seahorse" will stand on the plaza until September 2014. Schmidt was selected by the Beaverton Arts Commission from a pool of artists who submitted photographs of their work online to be considered for the two-year program.

Elaine Orcutt, support specialist for the city of Beaverton, said the sculptures in the program are displayed temporarily, rented from artists rather than purchased, which gives residents access to art without paying tens of thousands of dollars for permanent sculptures.

A panel of Beaverton residents, local artists and Arts Commission members decided on "Seahorse," a stainless steel canoe displayed upside down with a saddle on its "back," for Lombard Plaza.

"'Seahorse' was definitely everyone's favorite," Orcutt said. "We placed it in an urban plaza because of the juxtaposition. You'd never see it there."

For Schmidt, the display of "Seahorse" was a chance to give the piece exposure, joining work in Lake Oswego and Hillsboro.

"Seahorse"City of Beaverton

"I hadn't shown it previously, and I just wanted to get it out there," said Schmidt, who keeps the pieces not being displayed on his 3-acre North Plains property, which also houses his studio.

In four decades as a sculptor, Schmidt has explored the abstract representation of common objects and ideas. His first public piece was displayed on Wards Island in New York City. The piece consisted of a giant broom with a dust pan at one end. The broom curved so it swept into its own pan.

"I play with objects and change their content by switching things around," he said. "Part of that language I'm trying to develop -- a personal language -- changes the context to where something becomes a new object."

Hillsboro is home to two of Schmidt's sculptures. One, which serves as the bus shelter outside the Hillsboro Main Library, is a roof shaped like a book laid spine-up and has a chimney made of stacked volumes.

Another, at Southeast Second Avenue and Washington Street downtown, is called "Dancing Chairs" and features chairs bent and elongated in places to create an abstract effect.

"If you think of a chair, it's a simple abstraction of ourselves," he said. "We name the legs, the seat, the back, the arms. I take those pieces and try to animate them a little bit -- give them more of a human quality."

The transformation of objects is Schmidt's inspiration, he said.

"Some people draw on nature; some people draw on social issues or green issues or whatever," he said. "I just like taking things apart. It's like taking things apart when we're young and trying to put it back together. It never went back together the same way. It became something different."